Dr. Doof - Role in Phineas and Ferb

Role in Phineas and Ferb

Doofenshmirtz is portrayed as a bumbling and somewhat incompetent dimwitted evil genius who hates nearly everything (except Christmas, much to his chagrin). He is bent on taking over the "entire tri-state area" and uses peculiar contraptions to do so. Their names tend to end with the suffix "-inator" (except for Shrinkspheria, an invention he stated "I was going to call it a Shrinkinator but I've done the -inator thing before",) and are made up of "strange items purchases off the internet" with his large alimony check from his ex-wife Charlene. Ever since the day they first met, his arch-nemesis has been the secret agent Perry the Platypus. During every intro, a song is played, with the lyrics "Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated", with the song lyrics changed if he is in a different location. Once the sound booth was shown with the band in it. Habitually, Doofenshmirtz's daily encounters with Perry follow a basic chain of events, beginning with Perry being captured, Doofenshmirtz explaining his evil scheme to Perry, Perry escaping from whatever Doofenshmirtz used to trap him, the two engaging in combat with each other, and Perry walking away victorious with the -inator being destroyed with a self-destruct button, leading to Doofenshmirtz yelling his catch phrase in anger, "Curse you, Perry the Platypus!" A running gag of the show is that Dr. Doofenshmirtz only recognizes Perry with his hat on, which Perry uses as an advantage against him (and in one occasion, against one of Doofenshmirtz's -inators). Because he routinely wears a white lab coat, Doofenshmirtz is frequently mistaken for a "pharmacist".

Doofenshmirtz's leitmotifs are various "evil jingles" for his company operation, Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated, performed by a quartet, sometimes changing as a running gag based on his current location or situation (such as "Doofenshmirtz Quality Bratwurst" when he is shown selling bratwurst, or "Doofenshmirtz Evil is Carpeted" when his building is shown covered with rugs).

Backstories told by Doofenshmirtz often explain the reason for his evil schemes. As explained by his backstories, during his birth in his hometown of Gimmelshtump, Drusselstein, both of his parents neglected to show up, a recurring theme in other events in his life that left him to throw himself his own surprise parties. He was disowned by his parents and forced to live with ocelots, smelling so horrible due to the raw meat they ate, he had no friends and was forced to work in a carnival as the ball thrown at a dunking booth. When he was finally taken back by his parents, they were stricken with poverty and had their lawn gnomes, used to ward off black magic in his village, repossessed. His father, in desperation, forced him to become the new one, not allowing him to move.

"Got Game?" shows that even when his father won a pure breed "spitzen hound" that he named "Only Son" as a displacement of his apparent hatred towards him, a pet that became an award-winning show dog, he still forced Doofenshmirtz to dress as a lawn gnome. One of his only real friends was a balloon he had drawn a vaguely Peter Lorre-like face on, and named "Balloony." A few episodes display his issues with his mother and younger brother, Roger. Thinking that her newborn son was to be a girl, Doofenshmirtz's mom knitted several dresses, though when he turned out a boy she forced Doofenshmirtz to wear them instead for lack of material for a year, effectively emasculating him. His brother was, as Doofenshmirtz describes him, a "goody-two shoes" whom his mother favored. In "Thaddeus and Thor," Doofenshmirtz explains that this was due as well to Roger's skill in kickball, a sport Doofenshmirtz was terrible at.

Throughout his school career, he tried different hobbies, including trying to be a magician, making science fair inventions such as "The Inator" and "The Even-Bigger-Inator" (both of which lost to baking soda volcanoes), poetry (where he curiously also lost a competition to a baking soda volcano), and shadow puppetry—a successful act which got him a girlfriend for a short period, until he was upstaged by a poor puppeteer with large hands. He also tried being a bratwurst vender until the hot dog industry put him out of business. On a date with Linda Flynn before she became famous, a feat Doofenshmirtz sarcastically suggested was not going to work out by saying he was going to rule the world, she suggested that he start small with the Tri-State Area.

As a result of this and his misfortunes as a child, Doofenshmirtz turned to evil and used his skills at inventing to do so. His daughter, Vanessa, notes that he is not actually a doctor and simply purchased a $15 doctorate with his ex-wife's money. He went to "Evil 101" where his teacher, Dr. Gevaarlijk (which means "dangerous", in Dutch), openly displayed her hatred of him and failed him.